MARIANNA, Fla. (WTXL) — A drug trafficking investigation spanning more than 20 months involving rural counties in Florida’s Big Bend and the panhandle was revealed to the public Wednesday afternoon at the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office.
Jackson County Sheriff Donald L. Edenfield hosted Gadsden County Sheriff Morris A. Young and law enforcement agencies in the region along with U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Florida Jason Coody for a press conference.
Edenfield noted several years ago that a drug trafficking operation was identified distributing large quantities of narcotics throughout the tri-state area.
During the press conference, Edenfield noted that the operation, named Operation Agua Azul, began in late 2019, slowed down in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but picked back up in 2021.
“Investigations of this magnitude take time, effort and expertise," Edenfield said.
According to the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office news release, since the beginning of this investigation, more than 50 subjects have been arrested and law enforcement has seized 41 kilograms of methamphetamine, 6.6 kilograms of cocaine, 2.1 kilograms of crack cocaine, more than half a kilogram of heroin and oxycodone, multiple grams of MDMA and LSD, several pounds of marijuana and approximately 2.5 kilograms of fentanyl, which has a potential to kill 1.3 million people, or 6% of the population of Florida.
Young was thankful for the assistance of local, state and federal partners in the investigation.
Young, who said he has been the sheriff of Gadsden County for 19 years, noted the fatal impact of fentanyl in Gadsden County in July 2022.
“In one night, 12 people dead in my county,” Young said.
Along with sheriff’s offices in Jackson and Gadsden counties, sheriff’s offices in Washington, Liberty, Calhoun, Bay and Leon in Florida, the Panama City DEA, the Houston County Sheriff’s Office in Alabama, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Florida Highway Patrol, members of the North Star Multijurisdictional Drug Task Force along with the Sneads and Chattahoochee Police departments assisted in the operation.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the U.S. Marshal Service helped from the federal government level.
“I am proud of our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners for their tireless efforts to keep us safe and serve a critical role in our efforts to remove addictive and deadly controlled substances from our communities,” said Coody in a statement Wednesday. “We will continue to support the efforts our law enforcement partners as we work together to investigate and prosecute criminals bringing drugs into North Florida.”
The investigation will continue.
“This is not the end, it’s just the beginning,” Edenfield said in a statement. “We will continue to work together to take drug traffickers off the streets and fight for the safety of our citizens.”
